FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to portable electric lighting apparatus and, more particularly, to novel such apparatus that serves an extraordinary number of different purposes.
Flashlights and other portable electric lighting apparatus have been known for many decades and have reached a high state of development. Improvements in battery and bulb technology have resulted in flashlights that produce a substantial light output over an extended time period. Focusing devices make it possible to provide flood lighting or spot lighting, interchangeable lenses make it possible to provide lighting of different colors, and multiposition switches make it possible to provide blinking and other operating modes in addition to the basic on and off modes.
The extended and assiduous development of portable electric lights, which continues to this day, attests to the important purposes they serve. Portable electric lights of different specifications are needed, for use especially at night but often during the day:
during commercial power outages; PA1 at home and in the family car to search in basements, attics, closets, drawers, glove compartments and trunks; PA1 at campsites, while hiking or biking on trails, and in other areas away from commercial electrical power outlets; PA1 to enable repair of cars, boats and bicycles; PA1 to find keyholes and operate combination locks.
Indeed, portable electric lights have become indispensable in modern society, so that people today often have many of them, which are stored at various locations around the house and office or other place of business, in cars, trucks, and boats and in pockets, purses, luggage and backpacks.
While portable electric lights are highly evolved and represent good value, no single light developed heretofore is suitable for all of the purposes summarized above. For example, lights that are bright enough for use at long distances tend to be fairly bulky and heavy and not ideally suited for carrying for extended periods of time; and lights that are small enough to carry in a pocket or purse tend to be too dim for use at long distances.
Some conventional portable electric lights have two units that are connected together but operate independently of each other. While that broadens the range of possible lighting applications, it does nothing to address the problem of bulk and weight.
What is needed is portable electric lighting apparatus that provides the brightness and ruggedness of a heavy-duty flashlight while maintaining the convenience of a penlight or pocket flashlight.